Switch on ....

Tuesday 3^rd December.

Well. It was not rock star – that’s for sure!! I had James from AB there as well as it was the first Naida they had programmed. I had the expected hearing test – and forgot to ask for my audiogram – will do tomorrow. Then we went through. They explained what would happen – which I already knew, and then we started. OH.MY.GOD. It was nothing like I expected. I thought it would be a bit like with a hearing test. You sit there, waiting, straining, and then you think maybe you heard something, so you tentatively press, and then you hear something louder and so on.

No. I didn't hear anything. I FELT some things. When quiet it was a tickle, when louder it was a double pulse that felt a bit odd and made me flinch, but not once did I hear a sound. I was very concerned thinking that I would be feeling all these weird pulsing’s all the time. But James said no, it wouldn't be like that.

When it was switched on I heard nothing!! They got some rattles and things and I could hear some very loud but nothing clear – more like a pulse. Nothing with speech. So then they turned it up and then I get sound!! I had said I was concerned about setting the levels too loud, as I know I am a volume junkie on my hearing aids, so they set them cautiously – probably not helped by me not being able to really hear anything!!

So then I got warbling!! When anyone spoke it sounded like someone was going up and down the keys of the piano! I never knew there was so much up and down in speech! It sounded nothing like speech, not robotic or Mickey Mouse, just warbling tones! I didn't hear any steady state background noise likes fans and things, but I could hear doors shut, the lock turn on the keypad, and OMG automatic doors – what a racket!!

I had a coffee (which is where we encountered the automatic doors!!) and then they went through the equipment with me. Bit miffed there was no funky backpack for me L

And that was it – however I have an appointment for 10am tomorrow, 9.30 on Thursday and then the planned remap at 9.30 on Friday. I had asked for listening therapy appointments as I was down for the week and I am glad that they have given them to me – given the weird sounds I have so far!!

So we left the clinic, grabbed our stuff and headed to the train to Glasgow. I could hear people speaking, the train brakes squealing, the tannoy on the train as warbling. Walking through Glasgow I would get bus brakes squealing, but no traffic or other noise.

We did a bit of shopping then back to the hotel and I sat and tried some sound practice. I did Angel sounds assessment and got 70% on the tone identification – some of the sounds I could hear no difference, some of them I could not hear at all. The rest of it (vowel and consonant identification) was a dead loss.

I tried the CI calibrator from Mike Marz and found I could not hear the first 9 electrodes at all. I think my low sounds need boosting.

I listened to my audio book – read by a woman, and I managed the first chapter by keeping pace with the pauses, but it was hard. I then did some speech tracking from AB. And the first one was read by a bloke and I realised that I could actually hear a bit of a robotic voice. It wasn't clear but it was definitely a voice as opposed to a warble! The next two were women and harder. I then tried a different audio book read by a bloke – and it was a voice again!

We went out to dinner, and on the way back I realised that Stephen had switched to a robotic voice!! It was definitely robotic, but it was speech and sounding much more normal. Cue much hassling to say months / days / numbers to try and decipher – with mixed success!!

The pub was noisy, but I could pick up music rhythm. Right now I can hear the keys typing, and they sound different. And Jesus – suitcases being wheeled down the street are REALLY noisy!!

Anyway, going to watch a DVD now and see how that sounds, but I am so pleased it is starting to change – shows my brain is working hard – even if it doesn't seem like it at times!